106CR: Designing for Usability

Plan for the next 5 weeks:

> Today: The case for usability

Usability testing 1
Usability testing 2
Heuristic analysis
Cognitive walkthrough

The lack of usability of software and the

poor design of programs are the secret
shame of the [software] industry.
Computing professionals themselves should
take responsibility for creating a positive
user experience. Perhaps the most
important conceptual move to be taken is to
recognize the critical role of design, as a
counterpoint to programming, in the
creation of computer artifacts.
Mitch Kapor in Bringing Design to Software (Edited by Terry Winograd)

Usability: Why should we care?

The Paradigm Shift

The case for Usability

Constraints on implementing Usability

Paradigm Shift
In the last 25 years the focus in software design has moved from:

Fitting the person to the interface

to
Fitting the interface to the person
25 years ago:
Computing was a specialist industry producing specialist tools

Required Mathematics / computing graduates.

Design debates concentrated on the development of standards and
protocols for computer languages and software development processes:
ISO, IEEE, Internet RFCs

Paradigm Shift
Change in computer use:

Mainframes in 70s Expert users

Domestic PCs / mobiles / TVs now non-expert users
As computing devices become more pervasive and as more people
use them in their daily lives more effort is required for usability
issues.
Proportionally more of the code in a system is devoted to the user
interface - (McIntyre et al 1990)

20% in 1980
50% in 1990
about 80 - 90 % in web design now

Paradigm Shift
Devices are now used in a much broader set
of contexts:

Globalisation - broadening the device market.

Localisation - culturally specific interfaces (particularly

the web).

Personalisation the customisability and preferences

setting that users expect from their devices.

Interoperability growing expectations that devices

will work together.

From Enquiry to Action

Is usability a new name for an old practice?
We find concerns about the intelligibility of interfaces in
disciplines as broad as:

HCI
Psychology
Graphic Design
Cultural Studies

However, these disciplines are concerned with the

understanding of human action at an explanatory level.
Research output from these fields often gives very few
clues as to what to do with the information

Usability
Usability is focussed on action.
Not so concerned with WHY an interface fails but
WHAT is to be changed to make it work: Action
oriented research:
Field observation / testing
Negotiation with users
Prototype building
HCI

Usability

Why

How

Focus on theoretical explanation Focus on practical solutions

Academic

Commercial

The case for Usability

1. The Economic Case

2. The Competitive Case
3. The Legal and Ethical Case

The case for Usability

The Economic Case
Companies in the global software industry are finding it increasingly
difficult to compete on functionality or price.
Functionality: With the exception of Patents (which have always
been shaky vehicles for competitive advantage in the software
industry) Many vendors can offer similar products.
Price: The globalisation of the industry has meant that price levels
for similar products has started to equalise (interesting case of Linux
/ open source)
In the absence of competition at the levels of functionality and price
vendors start to compete at the level of non-functional features such as
Usability, aesthetics or lifestyle appeal.

The Economic Case

Many benefits flow from a concentration on usability in the case of ecommerce:

Increased likelihood of customers completing a transaction online
customers who can find what they're looking for easily and quickly will be
more likely to conduct a transaction
Increased customer retention and satisfaction. Ease of use also
builds customer loyalty and thus greater profits over time.
Reduced costs associated with design, development and
maintenance. By gathering user data early in a project, it's more likely
that designs will be right the first time, thus minimising the total project
time and resources required.
Reduced costs associated with support, documentation, and
training. A usable site will mean that less support, documentation and
training is required.

The Competitive Case

Unlike real-world shopping, where switching between
suppliers is a matter of considerable effort, in e-commerce:

Competitive sites are just a few clicks away - for a customer

who is having a negative experience with a site. Customer
experience is a key differentiator for business-to-consumer
(B2C) sites.
Research shows that a negative experience with an ecommerce site means a loss of an individual customer
forever.

The Legal and Ethical case

Recent regulatory and legal activities provide additional
impetus for following accessibility guidelines, particularly in
business-to-government (B2G) commerce.
DDA Disability discrimination Act (UK) originally introduced
to promote physical access to building is being revised (partly
by case law, partly by legislation) to include access to
electronic or virtual resources.
Being locked out of a bookstore because it does not have
wheelchair access is equated to being locked out of a virtual
bookstore because it does not provide basic facilities for
accessibility software such as screen readers.

The Legal and Ethical case

However, there is also a more fundamental

professional and ethical dimension than the purely
legal one:
Poor usability is simply not polite

Cost of usability

Usable.web research shows that usability testing is not an

expense
Usability has a cost-benefit ratio of anywhere from 1:10 1:100.
E-commerce example: for every Pound spent
implementing usability techniques the site owner will realise
a benefit between 10 and 100 in increased sales.

Constraints on implementing Usability

Design Inertia

Design traditions and perspectives

Legal, contractual and process constraints

Constraints on implementing Usability

Design Inertia
Standards and traditions enshrine design
approaches and objects making it very difficult to
revolutionise design on the basis of usability.
(costs too great, staff already trained in the old
system)
Example: The QWERTY keyboard.

Design traditions and perspectives

Different types of designer ask very different
types of question:
System / technical design - how hardware and software
fit together to produce a functional system.
Concentration is on functionality.
System centred design questions:
1. What can be built on this platform?
2. What can I create from the available tools?
3. How do I as a programmer think the system should
be designed?

Design traditions and perspectives

Different designers ask very different types of
question:

Graphic design - often used to produce a sense of style or

corporate identity. Concentration is on aesthetics / Look
and feel.
Graphic centred design questions:
1. How do I create a good looking site?
2. What can I create from the available tools?
3. How do I as a graphic designer think the system
should be designed?

Neither system or graphic design

approaches consider usability as a
primary concern

The Missing questions

User centred design questions:

What do users want to do with this software?

How can I make this software easier to use?
How do I make the software usable by the widest number
of people?
User Centred Design?
"To users, the user interface is the system."
User-centred Information design - is concerned with the
overall communication process (System design / graphic
design / interaction).

Legal, contractual and process constraints

Classic software engineering relies on FORMAL,
STRUCTURED methods for the conduct of software
development.
Traditional software / information system design requires
that the development process is:
STAGED or PHASED
Each PHASE has Identifiable outcomes that are SIGNEDOFF between client and designers

The motivation for structured methods is economic.

Traditional life cycle Problems

Key point:
The idea of discrete stages each one finished before the
next begins entirely rules out the idea of ITERATION.
ITERATION is essential to USER-CENTRED DESIGN, which is
based on improving the product based on user testing.
More recent development methodologies recognise the
need for STAGES to overlap.